The challenge of Shakespeare - Scituate High School student takes first in statewide competition

Thursday

Mar 27, 2014 at 10:00 AM

Like most people, Jack Duff was introduced to the works of William Shakespeare in school. The Scituate High School (SHS) senior said he read some of Shakespeare's major works – Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet – in English classes.

Like most people, Jack Duff was introduced to the works of William Shakespeare in school. The Scituate High School (SHS) senior said he read some of Shakespeare’s major works – Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet – in English classes.

However, it wasn’t until he began to look at them “off the page and on the stage” that he said he truly began to understand why these words have lasted so long.

“The hardest part and also the best part about performing Shakespeare is how difficult but how rewarding it is to turn what could be just words into a world that the audience can’t help but jump into with you,” Duff said.

His approach to Shakespeare has earned him accolades both within the SHS drama community, and beyond.

Earlier this month, Duff was named the first place winner at the 31st Annual Shakespeare Competition held at the Tufte Performance Center at Emerson College in Boston. The Boston Branch of the English Speaking Union, in partnership with the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, sponsored the event.

Duff competed against students from over 24 public and private high schools in Massachusetts. Each student performed a 20-line monologue, recited a Shakespeare sonnet, and did a cold reading before a panel of judges.

He will travel to New York City in May to participate in the National Shakespeare Competition finals at Lincoln Center where he will compete against 58 other high school students from across the country. The winner of this event will be awarded a summer study course in Great Britain.

Duff described the competition “as the only place in the world where you’ll get the chance to sit and watch otherwise normal high school students step onstage and take you back half a century in only 20 lines – at one second you learn their name and where they go to school, and at the next they’re a queen threatening murder.”

For his monologue, he said he performed a selection from the end of ‘Pericles, Prince of Tyre,’ and for his sonnet he performed ‘Sonnet 98.’

“For the cold reading I was given a selection as Angelo from ‘Measure for Measure,’ one of Shakespeare’s cruelest villains who, in that speech, uses his position of power to arrest an innocent man and blackmail his even more innocent sister,” he said.

The cold reading, he said, was particularly challenging.

“It can be very difficult to understand the words of Shakespeare at sight, but that was what the judges were looking for, and what I love the most about acting Shakespeare: the ability to take in these words, understand them, and give them back to the audience not only so that they can understand them, but also so that you can show them the story.”

Duff credits SHS Drama Club co-director, Tyrus “Ty” Lemerande, a renowned Shakespearian actor, for being an influence in his appreciation of Shakespeare.

He thanks Lemerande, and his wife, SHS Drama Club co-director, Amy, for showing him the art that is putting these 500-year old words on stage, “not for the sake of some mysterious quality only graduate students can understand, but for the magnificent stories that they tell.”

“That realization is what really drove me to begin working on my Shakespearean acting,” he said.

Lemerande said he was “blown away” by the news of Duff’s win.

“It was totally unexpected,” he said. “Jack performed very well, but he was up against some really talented kids and you never really expect to win something like this. But Jack is very smart and he is an excellent reader, which helped him immensely with the cold reading portion of the competition. And he has such presence on stage. That’s not something that can be taught.”

Duff said his favorite play is ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead’ by Tom Stoppard, an existentialist reworking of ‘Hamlet’ from the 1960s.

“It serves not only as a fascinating and heartbreakingly funny show in its own right, but also as a perfect example of how the ideas of Shakespeare never seem to be that far from any time period,” he said.

While he acknowledges that they say everyone wants to play Hamlet, Duff said he would rather have the chance to play someone like Edmund from “King Lear” – the illegitimate son of a duke who throughout the entire play fights against society’s condemnation of him, only to end up becoming the play’s villain.

“Villains like that are some of Shakespeare’s most intriguing characters, and perhaps all the more rewarding for an actor who has the opportunity to put them on stage and try and win the audience’s understanding,” Duff said.

Duff recently took part in the SHS Drama Club production of ‘The Tragedy of King Leontes’ in Act One of Shakespeare’s ‘The Winter’s Tale,’ which was performed earlier this month at the annual Massachusetts Education Theatre Guild (METG) Drama Festival Competition (see related story).

He had a key role, playing Polixenes, King of Boehemia.

The SHS Drama Club also hosted a ‘Shakespeare Festival’ earlier this month where they performed the Act for family, friends and the Scituate community.

Lemerande said he feels everyone should be exposed to Shakespeare, but that it has to happen “in the right way.”

“As with anything, a poor first experience can turn kids off forever,” he said. “That's why Amy and I do what we do, so that we can bring his words to life in a way which makes them fun and understandable. Shakespeare has an amazing ability to make kids feel either very dumb or very smart. And there is no reason for the former, because delivered properly, everyone and anyone can ‘get it.’”

Duff is co-president of the SHS Thespian Society, which he said is a branch of the International Thespian Society that has been around “for a very long time.”

“It serves as an honor society for those who have devoted exceptional amounts of time to drama at SHS, and we often work to publicize what the Drama Club does, and raise money for the program,” he said. “Our current troupe is just beginning rehearsals for a festival of short plays directed by thespians that we’ll be performing on May 9 in Scituate.”

He said he and co-president, Casey McCormack, along with seven others, would be directing shows for that festival.

“It’s one of the most exciting things we get to do as thespians,” he said.

As for the upcoming competition at Lincoln Center, Duff admits to being a bit nervous.

“There are only a few more intimidating stages in this country,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m hugely excited because the competition is bringing together more than 50 actors from around the country, and I can’t wait to meet such a large number of other people that are just as interested in this sort of thing as I am. Shakespearean actors are a unique and devoted bunch.”

He hasn’t decided yet whether he’ll be reprising his current pieces, or attempting something new.

“I may take a stab at a villain this time around,” he said.

For more information on the English Speaking Union visit esuus.org/esu, for information on the International Thespian Society, visit schooltheatre.org/ITS.